Life was designed to be lived in community.

"For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?" 1 Corinthians 3:3 (KJV)

Intro: this passage is dealing with unity - unity in the church and unity among believers. But the passage is unique because it brings up the great subject of salvation. Keep in mind that salvation means deliverance and that salvation is of God. It is God who has saved and delivered you: "For by grace are ye saved". But once you are saved, go to work - work out your own salvation and deliverance. Salvation is not stagnant and complacent. A saved person is not to be sitting around doing nothing and letting the chips fall where they may. A saved person is to get up and go to work. He is to do all he can to work out his own deliverance. This is the subject of the present passage. If the church is to be unified - if believers are to walk in a spirit of unity, then they must look at their salvation. - at the whole scope of their life and the glorious salvation God has given them - and they must do all they can to work out their own deliverance.

What does it mean to work out your own salvation? The word "work out" means to work on to the finish, to completion, to perfection. The point is: do not go half-way in salvation. Once God has saved a person, that person is to get busy obeying God. He is to take hold of the new life and salvation God has given him, and he is to work on it until it is completed and finished, that is, until God takes him home and perfects it.

Believers are to work out their salvation by working at obedience - by obeying the stirrings of God within their hearts. The word "worketh" means to energize. God arouses, stirs, and energizes the heart of the believer to do God's will. This is a most wonderful truth. Just think about it: we all experience movements and stirrings within our heart toward God. These stirrings are of God. God is working within us - energizing us - giving us both the will and power to do what pleases Him. Our duty is to grab hold of the stirrings - not to let them pass. We are to grab hold of them and do exactly what the stirrings are arousing and energizing us to do. The tragedy is this: ignoring, neglecting, and refusing to respond to the stirrings and workings of God. When we feel the stirrings, we desperately need to respond and do whatever God is stirring us to do. Just think how often the stirrings are rejected, ignored, or neglected. How often we continue to sit or go about our own affairs instead of heeding the working and stirring of God. How complacent and lethargic we are. Just think how much growth we lose and how often we must cut the heart of God to the core - all because we choose the things, possessions, and activities of this world instead of Him and His stirrings.

"But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring [stir] all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you" John 14:26 (KJV)

Believers are to work out their salvation by working at not murmuring and disputing or arguing. The word "murmuring" means to mutter, murmur, grumble, and complain. 1. Murmurings and disputes are not to be allowed in the church. 2. Murmuring and disputes are never of God - never! 3. Murmuring and disputes were the very sins that brought judgment upon so many Jews in the wilderness wanderings of Israel.

The person who murmurs and disputes is not working at his salvation or deliverance. He is doing the very opposite: working to bring judgment upon himself. The results of murmuring are far worse than people ever think. This is the primary reason God forbids murmuring and disputes in no uncertain terms.

Believers are to work out their salvation by working at being pure. 1. Believers are to work at being "blameless”. 2. Believers are to work at being “harmless”.Unmixed and unadulterated. It is the idea of flour or grain passing through a sieve to separate the pure from the impure. It means that our thoughts and lives... • are not to be polluted by watching, reading, and listening to worldly and sexual attractions. • are not to be given over to worldly and sexual attractions. Our thoughts and lives are to be pure, clean, uncontaminated, and unpolluted. 3. Believers are to work at being "without rebuke". Without blemish, spot, or defect.

"Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid" Matthew 5:14 (KJV)

Believers are to work out their salvation by working at witnessing. The wording is descriptive: "Holding forth the word of life." Imagine! There is a Word of life. Men can live, truly live - both now and forever. Men never have to die. It is like saying the fountain of youth has been discovered with one difference: the Word of life not only brings eternal youth, it brings perfection - a perfect world and a perfect life. It is like saying the cure for cancer has been discovered with one difference: the Word of life not only cures the cancer; it injects the energy of everlasting life into the other cells of the body. This is a terrible tragedy! So many of us do not hold forth the Word of life. We hold back. We do not share the message of the glorious gospel of life. The Word of life is just what it says: it is the message of life that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

"I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly" John 10:10 (KJV)

Believers are to work out their salvation by following the example of sacrificial labor. Very simply stated, Paul had offered himself as a sacrifice to serve men. The picture is that of the sacrifice and offerings made by people to the heathen gods. Paul had taken his body and offered it as a sacrifice and service for people. He lived for nothing else except to hold forth the Word of life to people. His body was totally sacrificed for that purpose and that purpose alone.

"And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me" Luke 9:23 (KJV)

"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God" Romans 12:1-2 (KJV)

Believers are to work out their salvation – are you a believer? are you working out your salvation?